Spicy White Bean Stew

White bowl filled with spicy white bean soup.

Spicy white bean soup is quick, easy and so flavorful! The perfect weeknight meal, ready in under 20 minutes and made with budget friendly ingredients! You won't believe how delicious this healthy soup is! Vegan, gluten free and dairy free and perfect for meal prep too!

Course Soup

Cuisine Mexican

Keyword spicy bean soup, spicy bean stew, spicy white bean soup, spicy white bean stew

Prep Time 2

Cook Time 15

Total Time 17

Servings

Calories 324kcal

Author Samantha Rowland

Cost $7.26 Recipe/$1.82 Serving

Ingredients

1 medium onion $0.33
4 cloves garlic $0.24
3 cups vegetable broth $1.25
2 cans white beans $1.98
1/3 cup chimichurri $1.00
1 can diced tomatoes (fire roasted with chiles optional) $1.29
1 tsp sea salt $0.05
1 tsp garlic powder $0.10
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes $0.02
1/2 bunch kale $1.00

Instructions

Start by chopping all the vegetables. Finely chop the onion and garlic. Destem the kale and chop it into bite size pieces. I like to rinse and drain the beans at this time too.
Preheat a large pot over medium heat. When hot, spray with olive oil or avocado oil spray and add onions and garlic. Cook 3-4 minutes.
While onions are cooking, drain one can of the beans and mash them in a bowl with a fork or potato masher.
Once onion and garlic are translucent and starting to leave brown bits on the bottom of the pot, add about 1/2 cup of vegetable broth and scrape the bottom of the pot.
Once the bottom of the pot is clean, add the rest of the ingredients except the kale.
Turn the heat to medium high/high and bring to a boil.
Once the soup is boiling, add the chopped kale and turn off the heat. Stir until kale is wilted and serve hot.

Notes

To make this spicy white bean soup in the instant pot:

Start by putting the saute function on the instant pot then spray the insert with olive oil or avocado oil.
Saute the onions and garlic for 3-5 minutes, until translucent and starting to stick to the bottom of the pot.
Turn off the saute function and add ½ cup of broth. Scrape down the bottom of the instant pot well so there are no brown bits left.
Add the rest of the ingredients except the kale and put the lid on.
Cook on high pressure for 1 minute. After 1 minute, allow the stew to naturally release pressure at least 10 minutes. You can either manually release pressure or allow the instant pot to naturally release all pressure.
Once pressure has been released, add the kale and stir. Once kale is wilted, serve hot.

Top tips

Be sure to rinse your canned beans well - I rinse them a few times and let them soak in clean fresh water for a minute or two before draining them. I find this helps make them easier to digest as the liquid they are packed in is hard on my digestion.
Use a fork or potato masher to crush up a can of beans, this gives a thicker consistency to the stew.
The longer you let this soup boil on the stove, the thicker it will get. You can also add an additional can of beans to also make this stew seem thicker.
Be sure to remove the thick stem from kale, swiss chard or collard greens before adding them to the soup. The thick stems will not soften quickly in the stew, and they will be chewy, stringy and hard to swallow. Check out my tips below on how to destem and chop kale.
If you don't have chimichurri on hand, you can make your own quite quickly. For this recipe, I used my cilantro chimichurri recipe, but you can use whatever your favorite version is.

Other ways to add spice to this soup

If you don’t have chimichurri sauce to use in this recipe, you can use any of the following instead:

2 tablespoons of Harissa (a paste made from roasted red peppers, chiles, tomato paste and spices)
An additional ¼ - ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons sambal oelek chili sauce + 1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons tomato paste + 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes + 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika + 1/2 teaspoon cumin

Storing leftovers

Fridge: Store leftover spicy white bean soup in the fridge for up to 5 days in an airtight container.

Freezer: Freeze leftover white bean soup in a freezer safe container for up to 3 months. I like to freeze the soup in 1 cup portions using Soupercubes, then once frozen I pop them out of the silicone trays and into a stasher bag. Be sure to always label your freezer bags with the name of the recipe, the date and the use by date.

Nutrition